What if most of what we knew about Mental Health was wrong? | Khaliya | TEDxBeaconStreet

An expert in global pandemics with a background in computer science, Khaliya sees mental health as among the most crucial social issues of the coming century. Together with her partner Thomas Ermacora she co-founded Falkora, a not for profit mental health and neurotech initiative to help put cross disciplinary approaches to mental health at the top of the political agenda in the United States and internationally.

Khaliya Aga Khan is a philanthropist, venture capitalist, public health specialist and active advocate for social change. Both her professional and philanthropic work focus on the intersection of design, technology and social entrepreneurship.

[daviddooley]

Here’s a quote from John Briere, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Psychiatry and the Behavioral Science, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.

“If we could somehow end child abuse and neglect, the eight hundred pages of the DSM…would be shrunk to a pamphlet in two generations.”

Parenting education must be part of the solution. Not conventional parenting education, but an entirely new kind that reaches everyone, everywhere.

[YasminMeadowflower]

I love this woman's courage. Going against medical industry is like going against oil industry. Impossible to win, but more fighters we get, more possible it becomes.

[LoreleiWakefield]

I was a psych major and can't believe we didn't have the concept of 'mental injury', just trauma and assault and abuse that lead to mental disease. The concept of injury implies a capacity to heal. Thank you for putting that out there.

[cliffjamesmusic]

In the 1980s the Campaign against Psychiatric Oppression (CAPO) met for regular music and poetry meetings in the Troubadour Café, London, to express their response to how people had been treated. I find it absurd that instead of learning from people who are classified as mentally ill and thereby changing society to avoid making people ill, we continue to support a socio-economic system built on cooperative abuse and exploitation, resulting in the adverse consequences for millions of people.

[richhorsley]

What an amazing women, I have a mental 'injury' on and off fir 30 years but slowly and surely I'm healing, videos like this help my healing Thank you very much🙏

[Sundayjean]

I love that reframe! Mentally injured. I took SSRIs and it ruined my career and life. It’s taken years for me to rebuild. In September of this year I started an at home low dose ketamine treatment. The first thing I began to realize - I didn’t understand how deeply depressed I had been; it was as if an oppression was being lifted.

[agaobi]

The best way to heal somebody's so called mental illness or disorder is to fix the environment not the person
Usually absolute safety and rest do the job.
I went through a major break down because doctors and superiors refused to give me a leave when I absolutely needed it, being exhausted after covid and just going out of trauma caused by an accident and two suicides in the family
The problem in our society is the overvalidation of work and efficency - "you're injured? - fix yourself and go back to work" - if the healing takes you more than 2 weeks you're considered a parasite to society

[denise]

Thank you for bravely telling your story. I am a nurse and worked in the mental health field for many years in the past. It is just a revolving door. The system definitely needs an overhaul.

[cammybrasenose]

I'm a young woman who's benefited from Falkora's research. I'm grateful to you for your work and the sterling insight into mental health that you do. Great talk.

[NadiaStAmand]

" we keep people alive but dont heal them"

[sakuraayurveda]

Outstanding and brave TEDx and not a moment too soon. I hope this kind of work can continue!!!

[livelearngrow]

I am a licensed therapist. I worked at a state run psychiatric facility for 5 years. It was awful. Everyone I worked with who was a client wasn’t getting good quality treatment. When clients vocalized this, clients were made out to be too crazy to know what treatment should look like. My concerns about carr was evident in how I practiced psychotherapy and care management in a more sensitive, kind, way. They tried to get me in trouble - expelled entirely - because of this. They made evidence where there wasn’t any. They contacted my licensing board and that terrified me how far they went to get me out of there. It payed well, but I will never go back. Clients were very much not treated well and it was normalized. Clients were terrified they would never get discharged and I understand why. I pray that place closes. I believe Allah will exact justice. Those that were mistreated and had their minds cracked, I pray they feel better now or in the hereafter. ❤

[NoOneDied]

"Keeping them alive, but not healing them" so true, so sad

[macoeur]

I've been watching Ted talks since they began and have enjoyed so many of them...but the message here is by far the best one I've heard. Everything about Khaliya's delivery of this message indicates the depth of her commitment to it, and I applaud the courage it took for her to do so. Everything about it is "SO TRUE". We MUST stop thinking of brain altering substances as "the fix" for mental "injury". Human beings deserve so much more....even when their suffering is inconvenient to society....and even though it takes real work and real pain and real time to recover....and even though pursuing "real" health does not directly serve our economy....and may even, in the short term, my be an economic burden. The state of our world will ultimately benefit exponentially if and when we correct this "wrong turn". I don't have any first-hand knowledge of the statistics and/or viability of psychedelic science so won't weigh in on that, other than to say..."If" these alternative treatments are shown to encourage neuroplasticity in a way that facilitates healing, these DO need to be seriously considered". It sounds like they may even be the thing that bridges the gap between what "real humans" need for "true" healing, and the existing economic challenges that have led us down this "wrong path" of medicating symptoms away at the expense of true health.

THANK YOU KHALIYA!!!👏👏👏👏👏!!!

[TinaMatula]

I healed myself microdosing for .30days at bed time. I can't even try to fall in to depression like I use to feel. I fell sad but not like it use to be... I'm on year 3 healed thanks to mushroo.s. thank you for bringing awareness to this 🙏

[AlexDiesTrying]

Annie: "I've heard you help people with horse problems."
Tom: "Truth is, I help horses with people problems."

8:20 An injured soul. It's actually easy to diagnose with me: Take away the reason for my despair and boom, I stop being "mentally" ill. I just need hope. But I don't get any.

[sizzla]

There are two kinds of perfect people: those who are dead, and those who have not been born yet.
~Chinese Proverb

[Caroljoyebrey]

Thank you for your courage to speak out. You have put a voice on a very dark place of humanity that needs to come out. You have said we all might have got it wrong. We need a new language for it., new concepts. Perhaps with Covid it will finally be addressed and like you say given the time and respect it deserves. We need to face the fact this is a very human condition.

[themorningmist]

She's right! There's a lot of misunderstanding surrounding mental health or even mental illness. I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, treatment resistant and so was recommended for a long-term care facility in my mid 20's. Yet I went on to recovery, and I mean cured, with no longer taking meds. What they don't teach you is how schizophrenia works, how your mind works and how schizophrenia uses the workings of the mind to entrench itself. You don't need psychedelics either, though they are better than the harsh chemical laden antipsychotics. But greater than psychedelics is understanding the mental plane. Understanding how to have your mind be your ally instead of working against itself. Psychedelics can make things easier, but there things you need to learn that doesn't come by walking the easier route. There are understandings that come from struggling and persevering. There's so much wisdom to be found in this way. But, it might not be everybody. Still, I definitely appreciate her message. Psychiatry had favored big pharma over truly helping patients with therapy that leads to understanding and a more meaningful and sustainable recovery. It's not just a brain thing either, there's also spiritual component to this, and only looking at the brain creates another blindspot to the other, greater parts of our being.

[lauraoli]

Absolutely fantastic presentation. Clinically credible and peer reviewed research based. Thankyou for this.